Roof tops

I love buildings with roof tops that you can go out on.

The roof of the Beach Centre, where we are staying, reminds me the roof top of the block of flats I lived in in Seville. Red tiles and whitewashed walls. But from this roof you can see the sea to the east, which makes it extra special. In Spain most people just used the roof for hanging out laundry. It only seemed to be a novelty to me, and I'd go up every morning, before the tiles got too hot, I used to go to eat my breakfast, journal and pray.

This roof is used for more than laundry, it's good for many things.... like

Watching the sunrise - finally after several days of planning too then giving in to the call of 'more sleep', I went up this morning to watch the sunrise (6.15am). The first thing i succeeded in doing was scaring away one of the boys who was up there already by my loud nose blowing. cringe. my 'hayfever' or whatever it is seems to be even worse here than england. anyways moving away from snot, and back to the sun.... it dawned red tucked behind a layer of cloud above the sea, and at that moment it's hard to believe that all the light and heat we are about to experience will radiate from that dim red ball. The cloud seemed to rise with the sun, so Kirsty and i were standing waiting for it to fully reveal itself for what felt like a long time. In fact we went back down to our room before it did and watched from the

window before catching a few more minutes sleep.

Dancing! yesterday afternoon we were teaching on moving with flags, for which there is not enough space in the hall we've been using, so we danced up on the roof - which although hot was a nice change from the air conditioning and fluorescent lights! Music was pumped out over the neighbourhood and some beautiful movements were displayed. I find the whole flag stuff kind of tricky as I'm not such a graceful mover, but I enjoyed taking a lot of photos :-)

Chatting... Up to now everyone on the base has been really busy and we haven't had much chance to hang out with people outside of teaching times, which i've found quite strange as I was looking forwards to getting to know people and finding out more about life here. But last night after our evening meal several people were up on the roof, enjoying the cooler evening breeze and we got to chat to quite a few of them. Yey.

Moon watching... I would have said star gazing but to be honest the stars aren't so clear. (Although I did see a shooting star the other day, hooray!) The moon however is very bright. In england we talk about the 'man on the moon'. In Zambia it was not a man but a rabbit. And I have to say, with just over half the moon showing, I think I can make out some rabbit ears... maybe it's something about the southern hemisphere...?!

so the roof is good for many things, and I will make the most of it while I can!