Coucoumellisms

Del Diario ABC Color , Asunción, Paraguay: Los padecimientos del padre Vicente Barreto San Juan Bautista es la capital de Misiones. En 1976 fue la capital del terror. Los torturadores Camilo Almada Morel, alias "Sapriza", y Lucilo Benítez, alias "Kururu pire", entre otros, abrieron las puertas del infierno por donde pasaron los miembros de las Ligas Agrarias Cristianas. El pasado viernes, en la audiencia pública convocada por la Comisión de Verdad y Justicia, presidida por monseñor Mario Melanio Medina, algunas de las víctimas relataron su experiencia inolvidable. La intensa lluvia no impidió que la ciudad misionera fuera escenario de la primera audiencia pública en el interior del país. La anterior fue en Asunción. Mucho público en el salón de la Cooperativa San Juan Bautista Limitada. Jóvenes estudiantes, en su mayoría, escucharon con emoción la historia de quienes fueron los actores de un proyecto que intentó mejorar la suerte de los agricultores. Irónicamente, l...

To love is a gift. To love is to create. God is pure love, He is the creator. Love can change even the hardest of hearts. I do not believe in making an effort to convert anyone, one cannot be converted by desiring it. But perhaps I should be making an effort to become the kind of person, who by temperament alone, unconsciously converts those around her. Alas, I am no saint. I do not even come close to sainthood. Perhaps my continued stay on this island will inevitably bring me closer to God? The parrots make such a racket some days, I lose patience and yell at them. Even the monkeys get on my nerves from time to time. But they are only parrots and monkeys, doing their thing. I pray for patience. Impatience destroys. I need to pray more. Period.

... was yesterday. As predicted, we "celebrated" without him. I let the kids have pop again, we went to soccer, made cards for him and left them on the stove under the small light from the fan there, for him to find when he got home. (Which ended up being at 1:30 am) Must have been fun.

The Northern Canadian Street Gang

Today is Gabriel's birthday. We had spaggetti and cake and brought out the pop to celebrate, and Gabriel opened his presents after supper. Marc still hasn't come home from work, so we clebrated without him. He was home at 10:30 last night and didn't think he'd be home much earlier today so I didn't wait long for him. I have a very sore back, it has been bothering me like this for a couple of weeks now. I wake up, I'm fine for a few hours, or until I sit down to write, sew or do something on the computer, and then I have really bad pain on the right side of my back, under the shoulder blade and close to the spine. Everyday it is the same, and even standing up, cutting hair does it to me. Even reading a story to Dominic at the table was painful. Am starting to look forward to not being pregnant anymore, although I have to say, in general I am enjoying this pregnancy more than the others. If I could just not have back pains, it would be perfect. Oh, and tommorrow i...

I have met yet another strange character on this island. He appears to be a wanna-be greek warrior, yet he has given himself (or was given) a Spanish name. The other day I sat for hours with him in front of my hut, listening to battle strategies and learning all about Greek heroes and legends. His name is El Alejandro. He is an interesting character to say the least, even though what he talks about (for someone not impassioned on the subject like myself) is rather repetitive and I found myself drifting off and thinking about other things as he explained the advantages of one type of weapon over another. El Alejandro is a rather handsome dude, even if he is a bit dark for an ancient greek. But I imagine that even back then, there were dark greeks even if they prefered blond. El Alejandro wears armour and carries a sword. He wore a laurel wreath around his head the other day. He is very passionate about war and battles but he has not yet enlightened me on the finer points of greek soci...

Sitting here, alone on my island, I have plenty of time to think. I think Gollum would have liked to be like everyone in the upper-middle class. At some point, he found out that all he really wanted was to have a very good salary, a nice (big) house, not more than two children and wife who worked and also made lots of money. I think he resents not having this "ideal" of society, another thing which makes him bitter. Unfortunately, this is something Gollum can never have, or at the very least he will have to wait a few years before he comes close. Ahh, the burden that weighs him down gets heavier as the years go by. It is a horrible thing to carry, yet he cannot let it go. It consumes him. I , on the other hand, do not need material riches. I could live simply and with little, as long as I am surrounded by friends, for as long as I live. Which is why I do not mind my island so much, only the solitude sometimes. Gollum cannot understand this in me and it irks him. But I am ...