26 January 2004 00:44
had my pepsi. it helped. later i went to choir practice and had some mountain dew.. that helped too. still listless, but i go to bed in half an hour, so i can stand it. tomorrow i work for the first time since wednesday.. that might be rough. going to church is interesting for me. it takes a lot of energy to interact with these people, the philippino culture acts as a barrier that i must cross. it is their enthusiasm and friendliness that helps me do it. it's funny, becuase i sit in the car before church thinking i really don't want to do this, but the minute i walk in the door it's so nice just to be welcomed enthusiastically. i'm still exhuasted at the end of things, but oh well. i do find it frustrating though.. the friendliness is wonderful for a while, but after a while i notice that there's no depth to my conversations with them. it's hard enough just to communicate pleasentries, much less discuss something. it doesn't help that i'm the only 22yo there. the youth are all 18 and less, the adults all 25+. the teenagers are teenagers, nice enough, but they've got a bit of maturing to do, just like i did at their age. the adults are too philippino, they have trouble expressing themselves in english. i found out more about the church tonight htough, talking to ed, a caucasian who married a philippino woman. i found out more from him in 20 minutes than i ahve in the past two months. but while this is frustrating, it is still nice to have people who are always happy to see you.twas interesting, i arrived a little early by accident. everybody else was occupied, so i looked around the living room for a bookshelf. there wasn't any. instead, there was the largest video/dvd collection i've seen outside of a blockbuster. probably 30' of movies crammed onto those shelves. i was stunned.. i mean, the huge 60+" sony dominating the entire end of the room should have given me a clue, but i'm so used to the mennonite stereotype. back home we have an entire wall of the living room covered with books, with dozens more scattered in closets and bedrooms throughout the house. everybody i know back home has a bookshelf in either the study or livingroom, but usually in a public place. so i got to looking tonight, but there was not a book in sight. the only reading material i spotted was a stack of three magazines on the desk in the livingroom. needless to say, i was somewhat appalled. here are three little girls being raised on nothing but movies. eght. movies can have some value, but on the whole, it's nothing compared to the value of books. at any rate, i'm going to have to start taking my own books to these church functions :)
0125041.2128-2144
00:44 email me permalink / commentary (0)
