Coucoumellisms

Don Bosco Roga, Asuncion, Paraguay This is where I worked in 1993: http://www.pla.net.py/donboscoroga/ Don Bosco Roga is the home that the Salesians founded in 1988 for children of the street. SInce that date, some 800 boys have gone through Don Bosco Roga, mostly from the stre ets of Asuncion and area, but also from other areas of the Republic. Only children and adolescents that are literally living in the street, in other words, those that sleep, eat, work and play in the street, are admitted into Don Bosco Roga. For those who work in the street, but who have a home that welcomes them even it is only to eat and sleep, another program is available which consists of activities of support and reinforcement, professional formation and breakfast. Don Bosco Roga Obra Salesiana del Menor Cedro y Ecuador C.C. 587 - Tel.: 553061 Lambaré - Paraguay sdbpar@pla.net.py

What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Get out of Bed What was the first pop concert you went to? I have yet to make it to a pop concert, although I did see Duran Duran in Paraguay (don't know if that counts as pop) and that was the first concert I'd paid to go to by a popular group. I have also been to a Great Big Sea Concert, definitely not pop. What was the worst thing that you did as a child? Hmmm, I think we will have to ask my parents... getting drunk at age 14? (And not being able to stand the taste of alcohol for a few years afterwards) Throwing dirty stones into clean rainwater reserved for things such as my father's yogourt "factory" also come to mind. What is your favourite song? Oh, I don't have one favourite song... Rivers of Babylon by Boney M, Don't Tell Me by Avril Lavigne, Piano Man by Billy Joel, Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh, Experiencia Religiosa by Enrique Iglesias, Cancion de Oton...

I had a great time. I love going out and doing things like this with him. We talk and sometimes joke and he is fun to talk with. I had a great time, and all we were doing was shopping. Then we went and bought a couple of slushies. I think I have a great kid. I'm a proud mom.

Just thought I'd do some promotion for the cause for Rose Prince, another native woman who perhaps will be made saint one day, after blessed Kateri Tekakwitha? Check this website out: http://www.pgdiocese.bc.ca/roseprince/ (By the way, the PG Diocese or Prince George Diocese, is my old Diocese. I lived in Prince Goerge BC from June 1997 to April 2003 and I SOOOOOOO miss my old parish, with all the young families, and a great community spirit,... boo hoo hoo, wahhhhh!!!) From the website: Lejac is situated along the highway, a two-hour drive west of Prince George, between Vanderhoof and Fraser Lake. Every summer on the second weekend of July a three-day pilgrimage is held on the grounds where the Lejac Indian Residential School once stood. In 1990, responding to the desire of former Lejac Residential School students for a reunion, Father Jules Goulet, OMI, former pastor of St. Andrew's Parish in Fraser Lake, along with a local elder and childhood friend of Rose Prince, initi...

I sit here crying my eyes out, because of some petty little thing some ignorant child-less young woman said to me in mass this evening. I am so tired of everyone being against me, even those who should be encouraging me. I have no support. Had I any less faith than I have, I would have completely stopped going to mass a long time ago. I am not welcome in mass. My family is not welcome. Usually I arrive and I take the most isolated bench I can find, minimum one empty bench between the people in front of us and I and the people in back of us and I. Two empty benches is even better. But I don't always get that luxury. And even so, sometimes people still up and leave within the two minutes following my arrival at mass. If they tough it out, they sometimes have comments to make or else they shush my children, as if I weren't already doing it. I arrive stressed out in mass and I leave stressed out. I cannot relax because I have to try to make my children as quiet as possible. I canno...

Jean-Alexandre Dominic Maryssa

We just spent the whole day at a soccer festival here. Our three oldest each had a game, Dominic at 10:30, Maryssa at 12:30 and Jean-Alexandre at 1:30. We left home in a rush (as usual, we were running late) and I forgot the sunscreen at home (aaackk!!!). So most of us burnt at least a little bit because there is NO shade there. I had brought along a couple of umbrellas to sit under, but we couldn't all fit under them and we weren't under them enough. I am the one who burnt the most, on my face of course, the rest of me is not too bad. Maryssa got burnt too on her face quite a bit but not as bad, and Gabriel and Dominic each got a lot more colour. Even Jean-ALexandre under his dark skin got rosy cheeks. Tommorrow we will be outside all day again as we are going on a family outing with Ceridian, the group Marc works with. We will be apple-picking. I definitely plan on NOT forgetting the sunscreen this time. This is the first time I have burned all summer... I've ...

I received this (Canadian) novel, Life of Pi , by Yann Martel , winner of the MAN BOOKER PRIZE, from my brother Cecil and his wife Jane for my birthday this year. I loved it. It is the story of a very religious Indian boy who takes a ship to Canada with his family. The ship is wrecked and he is left alone in a lifeboat with... a Bengal tiger as a companion. That is an extremely short description as there is more to the story than that but I want to quote something here from the book that I really liked: This is out of Chapter Four of the book: I have heard nearly as much nonsense about zoos as I have about God and religion. Well-meaning but misinformed people think animals in the wild are "happy" because they are "free". These people usually have a large, handsome predator in mind, a lion or a cheetah (the life of a gnu or of an aardvark is rarely exalted). They imagine this wild animal roaming about the savannah on digestive walks after eating a prey that accepte...

I have this spot in my left eye, have had it for a week now. Tuesday I went to see the optometrist, who sent me to the opthamologist who is sending me to the retinologist. I wonder how far down the lane of specialized ocular medecine I will have to go? hee hee. Apparently it is an accumulation of liquid from a vessel in the eye, and so far it is not dangerous, as it has not moved, or gotten bigger and has not affected my vision. It is just a strain on the eye as everything behind the spot is discoloured and just slightly difform. It is not in my direct vision but just slightly to the left, so that what I am looking at directly is not affected, only what is directly to the left of it. For example, if I look at the letter "n" at the end of the word "accumulation" here on the screen, "accumula" is behind the spot and "tion" is not. So it is still close enough to the center of my vision to be a royal pain in the oculus. The opthamologist thou...

Jean-Alexandre and Gabriel, by Uncle Cecil, July 30, 2005

Maryssa, by Uncle Cecil, July 30, 2005 

It is just grey and rainy here on the lost isle of Juana la Cubana, if this is a taste of the rainy season, it is pretty depressing...I wonder if I do the right things, make the right decisions, should I have put more grass on the roof of the hut? Or more mud? Would it make a difference? Maybe I should not have built the shelter here, maybe I should have built it in a better spot? I am undecided, unsure. I am a prisoner of this damp dreary hut while it pours outside. I can think of only one thing, my FREEDOM! I ache to get outside and run around, but the rain keeps me inside, cold and miserable. I think the parrots must be equally cold and miserable, I do not hear their usual squawking. I hope the rain will let up soon, so I can go fishing again. Coconuts and bananas, as good as they are, are just lacking in protein.

Well, I am 21 weeks pregnant, I have gained about 12 pounds or so, and my belly is starting to take shape... For a couple of hours there, I thought I had actually LOST five pounds (!!!) instead of gaining anything, but that was because someone had fooled around the scale and set it to 285 lbs or so, about 15 pounds off of zero... hee hee Baby is moving around a lot too, I can feel him/her a lot more... I am seriously considering having this one unassisted at home... have been reading up a lot about this, the idea just seems more and more appealing as the pregancy advances. I may at least try to spend most of the labour period at home in the bathtub, and if everything is going well, I might just "accidentally" not make it to the hospital on time!!!