German Letter #5

Last night Giovanna made my favorite meal – melanesa – and we watched “The Kid”. I was really tired when we got done. In the morning at work Mr. Weick said we were going to throw away my latex that I had made the day before (it is no good since I didn’t have the 2nd phase done) and he would show me how to clean everything. Tomorrow I am going to try it again and plan my time better so everything is ready when I need it. It’s kind of sad throwing away my first latex; it just doesn’t seem right for some reason. Well, first I had to pour the white liquid into a plastic container and label it. The empty basin was rinsed with water that was not poured back into the sink (it got poured into the metal barrel). I took everything into the washing room and got my gas mask and rubber gloves on. Mr. Weick explained things quickly and left me to do the dirty work. I put a little water into the bowl, then added a cleaning liquid (scheuer Milch), armed myself with a steel wool sponge and began scrubbing. It didn’t take me long to finish the bowl. When I thought it was clean I dipped it in ethanol and set it on a rack to dry. The lid was easy too. I only had the stirrer left, and I expected to be done within 5 min. I was so wrong. I stood there and scrubbed. And scrubbed. And scrubbed. I covered the whole thing in soap and the resin still wouldn’t come off. It was at least ½ hr before I was satisfied with the result. Just as I finished Mr. Weick came in ad said he thought I had gotten lost.

I had a little trouble getting the gas mask off. My thumbs ached. I washed my hands and went for my well earned breakfast break. Filters were waiting for my capable hands when I got back. It didn’t take me long to cut a whole bag of them. Mr. Weick came over after lunch and gave me 20 pages of theory to look over and try to learn. I did my best, and there were some illustrations that helped. I then did my dry set up for tomorrow, weighed my first ingredients and tried to write a schedule for when I needed to add what (I have a recipe but it’s kind of confusing to read. I went to YW where we played board games… I came home and now I’m exhausted.

TTFN, love and miss you all,

A very tired

Margaret