Today, in a list

1. I went on a walk today down to a store called Argos, to buy a football (in America, soccer) pump for the Centre. It was great, getting to walk about in Dungannon and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous weather the Lord keeps blessing us with. I hope it lasts through tomorrow as well (though the weather report seems to disagree...). Oh, and Argos is a funny store. You look up the specific item you want in a catalogue, then when you go to the store you go up to the counter and present the item number to the clerk and pay for it there. They then take the number to the back part of the store and will collect it for you. Weird, right? Probably super efficient, though.

2. Tonight we had the pizza party for the kids from the rough estate. Only a few little episodes of bad behavior, and really it was rather good all things considered. No broken property, no (major) blood drawn--just a kid's ear and the lip of another near the beginning, but it toned down after awhile...to a moderate roar, that is. I hope we keep working with these kids. I know they're the annoyance of everyone else at the Centre because they are so unbelievably hard to manage, but I want to keep working with them. I really do.

3. I finally have a phone! But don't get too excited, it's just for getting in touch with people at the Centre...no American numbers for me. Still, I'm quite glad to have a mobile device again, just because trying to contact people through Facebook was getting quite bothersome.

4. Jonny, a volunteer at the Centre, pulled one on me tonight...I found a backpack today in the storage closet (which I can only use temporarily, but still, a plus) and I was quite excited about it, because carrying everything around in my hands or in a purse hasn't been ideal. Well, after the event was all over and I was looking the other way, Jonny decided to take everything out of the bag, turn it completely inside out, and zip the thing back up with my things inside. Funny one, Jonny! I give him points for creativity. Thing is, every time they pick on me here I know it's just because I'm fitting in even more. Cha-ching, look who's assimilating into the culture!

5. I'm going to keep my no-internet-after-midnight pact. Goodnight.