day 23: may qwan she

I am mad tired these days. We are at the workshop so late each night because we are working with the adults and they come after work. We leave around Noon and get back around 1AM. . .sometimes later. I stay up to add to this blog, bathe since I am dirt bag at the end of each day, crash in bed, sleep, wake up to eat lunch and the cycle repeats itself. The parade is Saturday night and that means I have less then 48 hours until parade. . .

The turtle is coming along, slowly but surely. It looks so beautiful lit up. It's not finished, it still doesn't have a head and the parade is tomorrow. I also face a dilemma about painting it, all my tests look terrible.

But Shuran Roo (again, not sure about the spelling) has saved me. She is new to working with Dream Community as a teaching assistant and translator. She completely has the wild grass operation under control, managing many adults and rascal kids, to make and paint about 150 giant blades of grass in seven different shades of green. I keep telling her I am sorry for being so crazy, she laughs and says it ok, it will be beautiful in the end. In hindsight, I could not have done this without her.

The people are so fun to work with, especially Tarlo, we have an endearing non-verbal relationship. We constantly make each other laugh, make funny noises, exaggerated hand gestures and a hand full of Mandarin/Ami words.

Despite my low levels of occasional crankiness and becoming easily frustrated due to fatigue, i'm having a blast. I tend to giggle uncontrollably once of twice late at night and the people are great. Being around such passionate determination from the Ami is incredible. During hard moments, I tell myself everything is fine. It's ok, "may qwan she."